Sunday, April 20, 2008 Sun.Star Essay: Talky talk By Erma M. Cuizon
ON Good Morning America (GMA) ABC, anchor Diane Sawyer interviewed “Sex and the City” actress Cynthia Nixon (who plays the character of Miranda Hobbes) for a public confession.
“A private side of a public life,” it’s called.
And you’re curious.
It’s all about what she did when she learned in 2006 that she had breast cancer and she kept this to herself, her children and her same-sex partner as she underwent medication away from the public eye. And now she says she’s healed. There was probably gossip about it here and there long before the interview but never got confirmation from her until her “coming out” in this GMA show.
Getting more curious?
Some people in broadcast media, who know a push when they sense one, suspected that the timing of the confession was like holding a candle to her new movie, “SATC: The Movie” where Nixon as Miranda is one of the actresses. SATC is Sex and the City. This was an effective promotion of the movie, yes.
This takes us to the topic of gossip as media commodity to call in the curious. If Ruffa Gutierrez had a movie just after her quarrel with her husband, given a public face by media, it would have been a hit. But it will still be a hit now. They say she’ll have a movie called “My Monster Mom.” The movie will be gossip-pushed, with her fightingest mom, Annabelle Rama, also in it.
What exactly is gossip?
I wondered last week why Korina in her program Today would interview a guy named DJ Montano. But known mostly to Manilans, Montano would make a good copy to Korina as he is a socialite and the main stuff of a blog gossip put up by a former Australian lover. The affair itself is already a curious bit, more so the duo’s quarrel which has something to do with money. The Australian accuses Montano in a blog of keeping the guy’s money with which they planned to go into business together before the fallout. Montano came out to tell his side of the story in Korina’s show.
If you were a show host, you’d welcome Montano with open arms. Imagine the blab about it before Montano came out to say he was going to court to silence his former lover as he deserved it.
Gossip is not an island, although there’s one you can go to for a vacation in Georgia strait near Canada. The name Gossip Island is interesting and some people think that it refers to the sound of waves, the way gossip titillates as it’s in the way (and not quite) of being confirmed (and yet not), in a splash and a swirl.
Even way back during the cave days, I imagine, gossip was part of a community’s life. As long as there were some others to deal with and talk to and listen, there would be gossip. No, I don’t think there was intent of malice in carrying tales. At least, not then.
In fact, the word gossip came from an old English word “god sib” which means god and someone close. Gossip used to mean friendship, as a youngster gets to be close to a godparent to confide in.
The thing to do, say some wise men, is to listen to gossip but not to tell further, or if it had to be told, not to add your own thoughts, not to make judgments at all. It would be to tell in order to help in cases of problems, or feel good with the good news.
Gossip is attractive because it talks about problems we don’t have, and we feel stronger on the idea or realization that others have them. Or about problems we have, making us feel better that others have them, too. Or we feel stronger with the knowledge that others are as weak as we are.
But the downside of gossip is that what we can make use of are stories of problems and failures, not so much the successes (which would fall under news, not gossip). What’s sizzling news is a couple nullifying their marriage more than another couple exchanging I-do’s.
What if Gabby Concepcion and Sharon Cuneta would have a movie together and Kiko Pangilinan is on a long official trip to Timbuktu Island by his lonesome self? This is gossip-worthy, huh?
